Eudaimonia in a Mechanical Dark Age

All the days of November and December present great opportunities for pondering on gratitude, tolerance, and contentment; Thanksgiving Day, the Brumalia, Saturnalia, and Yule do occur within that span.

Saturnalia should be a time to reflect on mirth and happiness, Nirvana and peace, euphoria, and Eudaimonia; overall, it should be a time for merriment and compassion, a time when light sings in darkness, journeying across chaos towards dawn.

Looking to Faith, Nature, Philosophy, and History—it is an exercise that can help one discover the methods of removing dependency on environmentally unfriendly materials, on mechanization and materialism, on corporatism and consumerism, and on technocracy.

Toward Eudaimonism, now it has become essential to labor to undo the power and prevalence of social media, firearms and warfare, automobiles and aircraft, artificial intelligence and computers, factories, the police state and military-industrial complex, and the current societal addiction to technology, convenience, and hurry.

But, how can we return to the Garden of Eden? How may we reach the Elysian fields? How do we regrow paradise?

Presently, we can still find ways to distance ourselves from the instruments that sap our reason, our wellness, and our compassion.

In this day and age of hustle-bustle, a human being can grasp Eudaimonia by practicing the following—

Prayer and Meditation: when Prayer and Meditation are in our lives, they kindle up a therapeutic mindfulness, rousing our mortal souls as well as a deep compassion for the psyche. To pray is to examine not only Virtue but Aesthetics also.
Gardening: it is a salubrious method of compassion for Humanity, from which one may attain amor fati; moreover, gardening generates fellow feeling with Mother Earth. Working the land blesses one with Gaia’s gifts, existential realignment, and gratitude for life and the cosmic wheel. The gardener explores worlds defined not only by toil but likewise by cultivation, domains of natural beauty, of colors and perfumes, and is transformed positively by them, distilled, enlightened, enriched.
Good Etiquette and Fashion: exhibiting good fashion is but one aspect of possessing good etiquette, that which indeed is ever vital to the valor and well-being of a civilization. When one is well-dressed, said person is showing respect and consideration for themselves; for their friends, family, and ancestors; and for those around them. Insooth, to dress in elegance and ornateness is to be regenerative and gracious.

Now, how should we define goodness in fashion? Good clothing and jewelry are prudent, modest, and demure, enshrouding and concealing, traditional, but comfortable and natural; however, clothing should also be artistic, ornate, lavish, and graceful. It should be somewhat inspired by the glamour and adornments of enigmatic antiquity, but it should also be virtuous, and it should attempt innovation. So far, the Renaissance, the Baroque–Rococo period; and the Belle Époque had the best clothing styles, in my opinion. For those of us in the here and now, modern clothing should emulate those clothing styles of yore while also demonstrating decency, charm, and finesse. Ultimately, superb clothing expresses subjectivity and paradox.

Through Prayer, Gardening, and the revival of good Fashion, Eudaimonia can be reached in this, our contemporary dark age, thus bringing forth Fulfilment, Bliss, Rationality, Virtue, and Serenity.

Have ye hope. Bid the Horae to arrive with Charity, Mercy, and Forgiveness. Bring about a fizzing golden age of milk and honey. Hearken to Saturn and Athena. Rejoice with the chorus of Aphrodite and her ethereal retinue. Jubilate with Hebe, Bacchus, Apollo, the Muses, and the Graces.

Happy holidays, merry festivities, good health, and glad tidings to all!

Thank you very much for reading my article. If you like what you have read here, read my other Aureus Press articles and my short stories published in various issues of Aegeon. Furthermore, you could aid me immensely by ordering my books. If you have read any of my works, please leave a review of them on Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop, a blog, or anywhere appropriate, because it would be a huge help.